The Misfit Diaries
by curt lemon
Summary: The MF Gang was eager to celebrate graduation with a night of reckless fun, but now sentenced to community service, they expect highway cleanup to be the peak of their summer. But when a freak storm hits and strange things start happening, trouble ensues- trouble that ends with a lot of unmarked graves. (All Characters) DO NOT NEED TO BE A FAN OF 'MISFITS' TO READ.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I hate long author's notes. THAT BEING SAID, here is one for you. SO, just a few things I would like to clear up from the get-go:  
1) This is an AU where the TVD character are set into the misfits-verse. None of the misfits characters will be in this however, and you do _NOT_ have to be a fan of Misfits to read this. It will make sense (I hope) and be enjoyable (I really hope) whether you've seen the show or not.  
2) If you _have_ seen Misfits, I'm basing this story on that plot, but I will only follow it loosely.  
3) As you may or may not know, this story doesn't end well for all the characters. But despite that, it won't exactly have a "dark" tone. Like Misfits, all the bad stuff is made lighter by the humor and reckless fun.  
4) The writing of the characters in this story will be very reminiscent of what they were like in season 1 of TVD (i.g. Caroline as snarky, self-conscious and shallow, Damon as manipulative, mischevious and careless, Tyler as a douche, etc etc)  
5) Some of the pairings in this story will be VERY CRACK.  
6) If you've seen Misfits, then you know that the characters are a bit more, uh, what's the word I'm looking for here? Liberal? Reckless? Open minded? Whatever. So although the Mystic Gang will be in character, they will be involved in some things that TVD doesn't really explore (drugs, criminal activity, bisexuality). So yeah.  
7) This is just a prologue! I wanted to jump straight in to their first day like Misfits does, but I thought you guys might like to see how all of the characters ended up there first. Enjoy! **

**Music: Graduation (Friends Forever) by Candice, and Echoes by The Rapture**

* * *

"_Ladies and gentlemen, I give you- the Mystic Falls High School graduating class of 2011!"_

_Time seems to slow down momentarily as Caroline Forbes throws her cap into the air and smiles broadly at the sky. She brings her gaze back down as two people ram into her and wrap their arms tightly around her. She looks fondly at the two brunettes hugging her and returns the gesture. Is this what it feels like to be on top of the world?_

_Stefan Salvatore scans the see of red gowns and smiling faces, and cannot help but smile himself when he spots his own group of friends, consisting of three giddy girls and two beaming boys. Stefan's not one for hugs, but when he gets pulled into the arms of the group, his grin grows even wider. This singular moment may be the happiest he's ever felt before._

_Elena Gilbert smiles for a picture with her brother before being brought into a bone crushing embrace from her aunt. "I am so proud of you, Elena." She beams. "And I know your parents would be, too." A tear pricks at her eye and she looks at her family standing around her- her brother, her aunt, even her uncle- and the happiness on all their faces. What could possibly bring her down from this moment?_

"_Hey Donovan, you coming to the party tonight?" Tyler asks his friend. "Sorry man, we may be graduates, but I still gotta' work." Tyler nods and is pulled away by his mother, who sloppily kisses him on his cheek and holds him tight enough to suffocate him. "Ease up, Carol." His dad says. "If you break his arms, how is he supposed to drive that car we're taking him to get next week?" Tyler balks; is this real? Or is this just a dream?_

_After being congratulated by her father and her grams, Bonnie Bennett is pulled away by her cousin Lucy, who discreetly slips a bag of what looks to be green herbs into Bonnie's hand. Her eyes widen in shock, "Is this-" "Just a little graduation present, coz. It's a big day for you, celebrate the Bennett way," Lucy winks. Bonnie smiles and spots her friends in the distance, and her family not too far. This moment- it's perfect; and things will only get better from here on out. How could they not?_

* * *

_When the day ends, the booze comes out and the music gets loud. They drink. They dance. They laugh. The night couldn't be better._

_As the night progresses and newly grads either pass out or clear out, Stefan, Bonnie, Elena, Tyler, and Caroline find themselves standing among the ruins of the wild night, adrenaline still pumping, thirst for fun still fresh._

"_All the beer's gone." Bonnie frowns at the empty kegs. There is a collective groan of displeasure among the group. _

_Tyler smirks deviously, "I think I know where we can get some more."_

_They end up in Caroline's car; she drives as Stefan rides shotgun, with Tyler, Elena, and Bonnie pressed into the backseat of her tiny VW Bug. At 4 am, the streets are clear, which is lucky, considering Caroline's driving isn't at it's peak. The warm summer air flies over them as Bonnie reaches forward and let's down the convertible roof. She throws her head back and laughs, soaking in the blissful moment. Tyler stands up in his seat and howls at the sky, when Elena stands with him, they join hands to keep from falling over and howl together. _

_They end up at the Grille. Caroline and Bonnie stay in the car to keep watch there. Stefan stands at the back door as lookout while Elena and Tyler break in, hurriedly gathering arm fulls of alcohol from the stock room. They rush back outside and Stefan takes some of the load. They laugh when Elena drunkenly trips and drops one of her bottles as they make their way back around to the parking lot where the car is waiting._

_But when they are met with the sight of painfully bright, blue, flashing lights, their laughter quickly dies out. And when they see Caroline and Bonnie standing there, panicked faces, with handcuffs around their wrists, Stefan drops all the bottles he's holding and they shatter on the pavement, creating a tiny river of booze that runs right to the black officer boots standing a few meters away._

"_Shit."_

"_You said it kid."_

* * *

_The gavel hits the block and each of the five teens flinch from the sharp, piercing sound._

"_Tyler Lockwood, you are hereby sentenced to court ordered community service, for underage drinking and possession of stolen alcohol."_

"You can forget all about that car you were going to get. And don't think I'll be driving you to community service either. You can walk for all I care." His father's voice is hard and angry.

"_Bonnie Bennett, you are hereby sentenced to court ordered community service for underage drinking, and possession of marijuana."_

Her father says nothing, just nods his disappointed face and drives. When they get home, he announces that she won't be seeing her cousin Lucy again until he says otherwise.

"_Elena Gilbert, you are hereby sentenced to court ordered community service for underage drinking and possession of stolen alcohol."_

"I can't say I was any better when I was that young, but I still expected more from you. What kind of example are you setting for Jeremy?" her aunt says. "Your parents would be disappointed."

"_Caroline Forbes, you are hereby sentenced to court ordered community service for underage drinking, and your driver's license has been revoked, for driving under the influence."_

Fortunately, her father has already left town since graduation, but her mother is another story. She would almost rather listen to Liz Forbes lecture her than have the cold silence she is getting now.

"_Stefan Salvatore, you are hereby sentenced to court ordered community service, for underage drinking, and possession of stolen alcohol."_

Stefan has no parents to scold him, only an uncle who can do no more than let out a disappointed sigh. His brother, however, who is still in town for graduation, gives more. "I gotta say, Stef, I'm impressed. And everyone thought _I_ was the bad brother." "Shut up, Damon."

* * *

**A/N: Ta da! So now you know how they all ended up on probabtion and in community service. Now the fun can begin! Shoot me a review and stay tuned for Chapter One!**


	2. Young Volcanoes

**Music: Ghost Town by Shiny Toy Guns, Death Valley by Fall Out Boy, Here Today Gone Tomorrow by Gang Starr, Atlantis to Interzone by Klaxons, Professional Griefers by deadmau5**

* * *

**Chapter One; Young Volcanoes**

"Ugh, this is lame!" Caroline exclaims. "This is _so_ lame!"

"Do you think maybe we could skip the whining and just get this day over with," Tyler says.

Bonnie and Elena share a "here we go again" look, and Stefan remains quiet.

"Shut up, Tyler," she says with a grimace pointed in his direction.

For a moment, Caroline stops talking and everyone else breathes in the silence with appreciation, until she starts up again and the group collectively sighs. "I just- I can't believe this is how we're spending our summer, our _first_ summer out of high school, and we're gonna' spend it picking up roadside trash!"

Tyler groans, "You know, it probably wouldn't be so bad if you weren't here doing nothing but crying about it."

Caroline throws her empty Styrofoam cup at him. "You know what Tyler, this is all you fault."

"My fault?" He says with wide eyes.

"Yeah, _your_ fault! If we had just gone home when the party was over instead of going to steal booze from the Grille, this never would have happened."

"Well maybe if _you_ weren't such a lightweight, the officer never would have suspected you were drunk!" Tyler shouts, straightening up from the picnic table he had been lounging against.

"Did it ever occur to you two that you might be perfect for each other?" Stefan interrupts.

Both Tyler and Caroline throw a scowl at Stefan, but neither are able to come up with a witty enough retort, so Tyler simply leans back against the table and Caroline takes a seat next to Bonnie and Elena.

"I just can't believe I have to wear this ugly orange jumper for six weeks," Caroline mutters, straightening her belt.

Everyone looks down at their own jumpsuit, none particularly enthusiastic about wearing it. Caroline had done what she could with the horrendous garment- rolling up the sleeves to her elbows, and rolling up the pants legs to crop length, also adding a belt at her waist to cinch the poorly fitted garment- but she still vomited a bit each time she saw herself in it. Tyler wore a wife beater underneath his, and had the top portion of it down, the sleeves tied around his hips, while Stefan, Bonnie, and Elena wore theirs the standard way.

The group passes another few minutes in waiting- Elena and Stefan quietly discussing a book Stefan brought along with him, Caroline scrolling through various social media sites on her phone, Tyler throwing grass in her hair, and Bonnie meditating with shut eyes in an attempt to block out their bickering- when Elena suddenly perks up from the crouch she and Stefan were huddled in over their book, "Hey, didn't they tell us it starts at nine?"

Bonnie opens one eye and glances at her wristwatch, her eyebrows furrowing together, "Yeah, and it's 9:15 now."

"So where's our probation worker?" Caroline huffs.

Just then, a white middle aged man bustles out of the community center to where the group sits outside around a picnic table.

"Uh, hey everyone," he combs his fingers through his disheveled hair. "Sorry I'm late," he smiles anxiously and looks around the group, noticing the skeptical expression on each of their faces, as if they are all thinking the same thing: "**_This_**_ is our probation worker?"_.

He ignores the doubtful looks and claps his hands together. "Well, my name is Alaric Saltzman, I'm your probation worker, and I already know who all of you are... I think." He shuffles with uncertainty.

Alaric tries to remember the files he looked over last night so that he can match the names to the faces, but he is unable to recall anything. It had been a long night, and looking over all the files of the young offenders had reminded him of his own criminal record. The temper and violent rages he had once struggled with, the ones that sent his wife away. So, one minute he was reading files, the next minute his favorite bottle of bourbon was nearly empty. Suffice it to say, his memory was not serving him well in recalling the events of the previous night.

Showing up hungover to direct the community service of teens busted for underage drinking? _Yeah, nice one buddy. Real professional._

He clears his throat and gets back to the task at hand, "I'm sure none of you actually want to be here and I don't really want to either, so why don't I just skip the customary 'Community Payback' speech and get right to it?"

The five share questioning glances, but say nothing, so Alaric continues. "Alright, so, how do you all feel about painting benches?"

"Hmmm," the blonde one cocks her head to the side, "I'm not really sure I want to-"

"Well it's a good thing it doesn't matter," he cuts her off, "cause you're gonna have to do it anyway."

** xx**

The three girls stand around a bench, swiping their paint brushes across the planks disinterestedly.

"Alright, how about Tyler, Stefan, and," Caroline cocks her head to the side and squints her eyes in deep thought, as though asking Elena who she would rather screw, kill, and marry is the most important thing she's ever done. "Oh, I know! Stefan's brother?"

"That's not fair," Elena says. "I've never met Stefan's brother; I don't even know his name."

"Well, yeah, but you _saw_ him. He was at graduation, remember?"

"Caroline-"

"I know you saw him! Which means you know what he looks like, which means he's option number three. Now go!"

"Why not Matt?" Bonnie asks.

"Oh please, that's too easy!" Caroline waves off the suggestion.

"Fine," Elena huffs. "I guess, screw Stefan's brother...marry Stefan and... kill Tyler."

"And I thought we were friends," Tyler's voice suddenly appears behind them.

Caroline shrieks in surprise and jumps backwards, knocking a can over and effectively splattering paint across the concrete. "Dammit Tyler!" She exclaims and tries to hit him in the chest, but he catches her hand and gives her a teasing look.

"Sorry Ty," Elena gives him an apologetic look and shrugs. "But that's just it, you are my friend. And you have been my whole life, which includes your middle school phase when your hair was longer than Caroline's," she teases. "After seeing that, I don't think I'd _ever_ be able to sleep with you."

"Now that I would have loved to see," Stefan mutters from his bench. Having only moved to Mystic Falls last year, he wasn't witness to everyone else's awkward phases.

"Hey, can I have my hand back?" Caroline asks irritatedly.

Tyler drops it unceremoniously and turns to Bonnie, "What about you, Bon? Would you really kill me, too?" He asks with mock hurt in his voice.

Bonnie rolls her eyes. "Well, I never actually saw Stefan's brother, so I can't really say," she shrugs.

"Fair enough," Tyler says. "Give me some names."

"Hmm," Bonnie thinks about who to choose when Caroline speaks first.

"What about the three of us?" Caroline asks.

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Oh, come on. You can't come up with anyone better?"

"Wow, ok," Elena says, "I'll try not to be too insulted by that."

"Hey, you said you would kill me." Tyler retorts.

"Fair enough," she shrugs.

"Um, what's wrong with the three of us?" Caroline asks, crossing her arms in displeasure.

"Nothing, you just could've been a little bit more creative."

"Fine," she says with irritation, "what's your idea of 'more creative'?"

"Hmm, how about Vicki Donovan? Now that is one fine piece of-"

A loud roll of thunder interrupts him, and Stefan turns his head to look at the sky. "Weird weather, right?" He says, observing the gray clouds in the distance that had not been there when he left the house that morning.

"Hey," Alaric says walking up to them, "what happened there?" He points to paint splattered across the concrete. "You've been here five minutes, how'd you make a mess already?"

Just as Tyler opens his mouth to let out what was sure to be a smart ass reply, he is cut short by a giant ball of ice the size a shopping cart that suddenly falls and crushes the car behind Alaric. Everyone shouts and jumps back in shock. When Alaric pulls up from the crouched stance he instinctively went into and looks behind him, he raises a shaky hand to point at the crushed vehicle now blaring it's alarm.

"Hey, that's my car!"

Tyler chuckles and mutters, "Serves you right, dickhead," right before another ball falls into the pond directly behind them, sending water splashing over everyone.

"Oh my god!" Caroline screams.

"Uh, maybe we should go back inside," Stefan suggests warily.

"What is _that_?" Bonnie cries out, pointing to the sky.

Everyone turns to look and their eyes widen when they see the blanket of black clouds, heading in their direction at an alarming rate. They are so busy staring at the black tendrils curving down out of the bottom of the clouds that they don't see the next giant ice ball, until it falls on a dumpster beside Stefan with a loud crash and explosion of debris as the dumpster tips over and sends ice and trash flying. Had Stefan not run out of the way when he did, it likely would have fallen on him and crushed him.

"Alright, let's get everyone inside now," Alaric says, just as another ball falls in the street. "Move!"

They all take off in the direction of the community center and as they run, the hail begins to fall faster, until all around them the abnormally large hail is crashing down and spraying ice in every direction. The sound of the hail crushing cars and trees overpowers the shouting coming from the group as they run for safety, shielding their heads with their hands.

Being the athlete, Tyler makes it to the building first and pulls hard on the doors but they don't open. "It's locked! Open it!"

Alaric runs up and fumbles with his keys and everyone bounces around him anxiously, temporarily shielded from the storm under the building's awning.

"What is going on?" Elena shouts over the unbearable loud stucco of hail hitting the metal roof.

Another giant ice ball crashes dangerously close to them while Alaric fumbles hurriedly with the bundle of keys, and soon after another falls so hard that it creates a large crack in the sidewalk, sending smaller shards of ice and concrete showering over them.

"Oh, come on!"

"Open the door!"

"Hurry up!"

"_OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR_!" Caroline's shrill rings out.

"Hey!" Alaric whips around, "_Don't_ speak to me like that!"

But before another deadly piece of hail can fall, before anyone can administer another shout, before Alaric can turn back around to try to unlock the door, the loudest bout of thunder yet bellows out and they are each thrown back into the air.

Time seems to move in slow motion as they fly backwards screaming, and a shock of painful electricity is shot through each of them.

**xx**

Their backs fall onto the concrete with a dull thud.

The sky seems to have cleared. No more thunder sounds, and all that falls now are small remnants of ice rolling off roofs and out of trees.

Bonnie sits up slowly, rubbing her back. Tyler groans and turns his head from side to side. Elena lets out a small whimper of pain when she props herself up on one arm. Caroline lays where she is, eyes clenched in pain. Stefan rubs his face and grunts.

"I feel really weird," Bonnie says, her gaze distant and disoriented.

"That would be the lightning," Stefan responds, sitting up along with everyone else.

Caroline looks around at the wreckage, "We should be dead."

"A little reassurance might be nice, you know," Tyler says, looking to their probation worker, who is on the ground as well, his back propped up against the community service doors.

Alaric looks back at Tyler, and then his head twitches to the side and he grunts out an unintelligible sound that sounds almost like "dickhead."

"Did he just call me a dickhead?" Tyler asks.

Alaric glances around at everyone, a confused expression on his face, and sits up farther. "Is everyone alright?"

"We could've died, you asshole." Caroline says, an expression of boiling rage plastered on her face.

"Are _you_ alright?" Elena asks Alaric, her face twisted in concern. His head twitches to the side again and he lets another unintelligible groan, his mouth turning at an odd angle. "Why is he acting like that?" She asks quietly.

"Probably just a side effect of being struck by lightning," Stefan says, looking at Alaric with curious, narrowed eyes.

Alaric shuffles and tries to stand, but has trouble with his balance. "Uh, how about we call it a day? I think we could all benefit from some rest." _Or a drink_, he thinks to himself.

**xx**

Vicki Donovan sits outside on the playground by the community center. It's clear of any children, and she is on a swing, smoking a blunt while waiting for a friend she's meeting there. She is swinging lightly to the rhythm of a song in her head when she hears someone behind her, dragging their feet towards her.

Assuming it to be her friend, she doesn't even turn around when she speaks. "Weren't you supposed to be here, like, twenty minutes ago?"

But the person doesn't respond. When they let out a series of grunts too deep to belong to her friend, she turns to see who it is, but barely has time to register anything at all before there is an axe swinging towards her face, and she let's out an ear piercing scream.

**xCx**

"Do you think our probation worker's ok?" Elena asks as she walks into the Grille with Caroline. "It was like he was having a spasm or something." Her eyebrows crease in worry as the recalls the way he kept groaning, and how his head and shoulder were jerking.

"Ugh, I do _not_ want to talk about him right now."

They take a seat at the bar and Matt promptly walks towards them.

"Afternoon, ladies."

"Hey Matt," they say in unison.

"What can I get you two?"

"Rum and coke," Caroline responds easily.

Matt gives her a pointed look, "I take it your first day of community service taught you nothing."

"It taught me that you were lucky not to have been with us that night," she quips.

"Ok, well setting aside the fact that, one- you're underage, and two- you're on _probation-,_ it just so happens that I'm also underage, and I get caught serving you alcohol? There goes my job. No job- no money. No money- no house. You getting the picture?"

"Okaay," Elena chuckles, "things are getting a little tense over here. I think I'm gonna go sit with April. She just got back in town for the summer and I think she could use a friend." She waves and hops off her stool, making her way across the Grille.

Caroline watches her go, then takes a moment to compose her features before turning back to Matt and smiling sweetly. "Matt, I have had what may come to be known as one of the absolute _worst_ days of my life, not to be mention that I'm still feeling off after being struck by a freaking bolt of _lightning-"_

"You were struck by lightning?"

"Yes, and I'll tell you all about how our idiotic probation worker is to blame later, but right now-"

A throat to Caroline's right clears, and they look to find that it belongs to- of all people- Alaric Saltzman. "I think I'll find some place else to drink," he says, before getting up and leaving.

"Who's that guy?" Matt asks, watching Alaric leave.

"Focus, Matt!" Caroline blurts. Realizing her outburst, Caroline brings her voice back down to a conversational level. "Can I please just have a rum and coke?" She asks as kindly as she can.

"The answer's still no," he says, swinging a rag over his shoulder. "I'm not risking my job just so you can get a tiny little buzz, alright?"

Caroline fights every urge to huff, cross her arms over her chest, and stamp her foot down- temper tantrums are kind of her specialty- and instead tries once more.

"In a few minutes, I'm going to have to go home to my mother, and I honestly don't think I can take another day of her hating me. So, please," she gently puts her hands around his, which are resting on the bar, "can I just have a rum and coke?"

Caroline is employing her full blown puppy dog face- the big, desperate eyes and slight pout- which seems to take affect immediately when Matt quickly agrees, "Yes, of course."

Caroline is taken aback, not expecting him to give in so soon. "Really?"

"Yes, of course." He repeats in a oddly monotone voice that Caroline might have given more thought to had she not been so excited with the apparent power of her big, begging, blue eyes. "Anything you want," he says.

_Anything I want?_ Caroline wonders, then decides to test her limits, "Can I have _two_ rum and cokes?" She asks innocently.

"Yes, of course," Matt answers flatly.

Caroline narrows her eyes, definitely thrown off by Matt's sudden change of heart. She tries to figure out what his game is, but when she comes up blank, she simply shrugs the weirdness of it off and removes her hands from his so he can get her drink.

And only when she removes her touch from him, and his eyes come back into focus, does she realize how dazed they were before- when his voice was so strangely emotionless.

Matt stands there awkwardly for a moment, blinking rapidly and looking very confused.

After about 30 seconds of Matt doing nothing but standing there, Caroline becomes a bit worried, but also a bit irritated. The two emotions battle for dominance, but it only takes about ten seconds for irritation to trump worry.

"So," she taps her fingers on the bar, "how about those drinks?"

Her question seems to pull Matt out of his strange state of confusion, and his eyes snap to her. "Jesus, Care, I already said no!" He snaps.

_Um, what? _"But you just-"

"_No_." He reiterates with a dead set look in his eyes. "We done here? I actually have a job to do."

Caroline is rendered speechless by his actions, and when she says nothing, he nods and walks off, leaving her alone and beyond confused. One minute he's saying no, then she puts her hands on him and asks again and he says yes, then she takes them off and again he says no.

What just happened?

**xBx**

Bonnie walks towards the entrance to the Grille, pulling her phone out of her pocket when she hears it ding, notifying her of a new text message.

From: Tyler  
To: Matt, Bonnie, Elena, Stefan, Caroline  
Just heard Dukes n town 2nite and throwing party. Think u can sneak out for a night?

Bonnie sighs, realizing that as high school graduates they shouldn't _have_ to sneak out. But as young offenders still living with their parents, freedom is limited.

In the midst of typing her response, Bonnie isn't looking where she's going and doesn't see the similarly preoccupied man walking in her direction until they run straight into each other, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Oh! Sorry about that," the stranger says.

She pushes her hair out of her face to see the man is her probation worker. _Great_.

"I guess that's what we get for texting and walking, huh?" He chuckles and extends his hand down to her. She smiles and takes his hand, but immediately feels an odd shock run through her at his touch and jerks back.

"You alright there?" He asks.

"Um, yeah, I just- I got it," Bonnie manages to say, still reeling from the feeling his touch gave her. She stands and smiles politely, all the while her insides are screaming at her, _Run! _

"Well," Alaric rocks back on his heels, "I'm sure you don't want to be here talking to your probation worker, so, uh, I'm gonna' go."

Bonnie nods and is prepared to turn away until something catches her eye and stops her. "Is that-" she squints her eyes to make sure she is seeing correctly, and realizes she is, "-_blood_?"

"Huh?" Alaric looks down to his shirt where Bonnie's eyes are set, and notices the red splatters that prompted her question, "Hm, I don't know. I wonder how that happened."

"Right," Bonnie responds warily. She has been far too uncomfortable since this encounter began and is eager to get away. "Well," she says, backing away, "I should go."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow morning then."

"See ya," she waves, then spins on her heel, speed walking into the Grille, and making a bee line for Caroline the moment she spots her sitting alone at the bar. She comes to a halt in front of her friend and they simultaneously open their mouths and speak each others' words at the same time.

"Something really weird just happened."

**xx**

"And when I touched him, it was like I _felt_ something."

"Ugh, do _not_ tell me you have a thing for our probation worker."

"Ew, no. Not like that. It was a feeling."

"I don't think I follow," Caroline's eyebrows scrunch together.

"I don't know how to explain it. All I know is, when he touched me and I felt... anger_- _like, really intense anger- course right through me."

"What, like, he was upset you ran into him or something?"

"I don't think so." Bonnie's leg bounces sporadically as she tries to make sense of what just happened. "I know this sounds crazy, but I swear, it was like I could feel him, as in, his essence... or something."

"Or maybe you've just been spending too much time with your grams." Caroline says.

"You're right," Bonnie sighs. "It just felt so real."

"Interesting," Caroline cocks her head to the side. Bonnie was always the practical one, the level headed one. If she was getting this worked up over something, maybe it was worth looking further into. "So on a scale of one to ten, how intense was this anger?"

"Like... rage." Bonnie shuddered, still shaken by the dark feeling. "Like murderous rage."

"Well that's... odd."

"Yeah."

There is a moment of silence as they each become lost in their thoughts.

"What about you?" Bonnie asks.

"Hm?"

"There was something you wanted to tell me when I walked in?"

"Oh, right." Caroline had been ready to share her strange encounter with Matt with the first person she saw, but after hearing Bonnie's story, it just felt like too much weird for one sitting. So instead she waves it off and says, "It was nothing."

**xTx**

Tyler strolls down the street he lives on, texting his friends about the news he got from Duke- that he is back in town for the summer and throwing a party, as usual. His head bobs to Gang Starr as he makes his way up his lengthy driveway and to the front door. As he slips his key in the lock he thinks about who he could take to the party with him. Not that he needs a date, he could go alone, or with his friends. But then again, Sheila, a girl he went to school with, has been particularly flirty lately. _Maybe there's something there, _he thinks, deciding that he will invite her to go with him. Tyler is pulled out of his thoughts of Sheila and the party when he realizes that he is still struggling with his key. No matter how many times he turns it, the door won't come unlocked.

"Hey, Mom!" He calls out, knocking on the door. "Mom, can you open the door?"

There's no response, so he pulls out his earphones and puts his ear to the door. He hears footsteps approaching on the other side. He knows it isn't his dad, since he's still at work and no one else's car is in the driveway, so it's not a guest.

"Mom, my key's not working. Can you open the door for me?"

There is a moment of silence and then her muffled voice comes through, "Your father had the locks changed."

"Uh, ok?" Tyler doesn't understand why his dad would do that, _did someone break in?_ "Well can you just let me in?"

"Tyler, honey-"

Tyler rolls his eyes, not understanding why his mother is taking so long to just open the door.

"-your father believes this is for the best."

"What's for the best?"

"You're always getting into fights, and mouthing off your teachers and coaches, and now this whole stint with community service-"

"Mom, what are you-"

"I packed some of your things and put some money in with it. It's all there on the porch for you."

Tyler looks down to his left and sees the backpack and duffel bag that he failed to notice before. _What in the-_

"Wait a second, you're not- you're not kicking me out are you?"

"You're eighteen now," she says.

"No, no. Where am I supposed to live?!"

"Tyler, honey, please don't make this any harder than it already is. It's time for you to grow up, and that will never happen as long as your father and I keep getting you out of every mess you find yourself in. Believe me, this isn't easy. But it's for the best."

"Mom," Tyler leans his head on the door and clenches his eyes shut as tight as he can. This can't be happening. "Mom, please, just let me in, we can talk about this. Really, you- you don't have to do this."

"I'm sorry, Tyler. But your father's decision is final. I love you sweetheart, please take care of yourself."

He can hear her begin to walk away from the door.

"Mom?" He presses his ear back against the door as her footsteps fade farther away. "Mom? _Mom_!"

**xTx**

When Tyler goes to his dad's office to try and talk him out of the arrangement, he only gets a "You can come back when you get your act together" and curt dismissal.

He sits alone on a bench at a park near the falls, turning his phone over in his hands repeatedly, trying to decide who he can call for help.

But in the end, he doesn't call anyone. Matt's got it hard enough- he can't impose on him like that. Sure, he and Stefan are friends, but they aren't _that_ close. Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie all live with their parents, or aunt, or grams.

Not to mention, it's _embarrassing- _having to ask for a place to stay because his parents kicked him out.

So he doesn't call anyone, he just settles for a dingy motel not too far from the community center, and pays for it with some of the money his mom gave him. _It's temporary, _he tells himself as he looks around the sorry room. _There's no reason to tell anyone. It's just temporary._

**x later that night x**

When Bonnie, Elena, Stefan, and Caroline show up, the party is already in full swing. The music is loud, the beer is flowing, the people are drunk. It's almost a picture of the night they were arrested, only... _more_.

More beer.

More music.

More people.

Elena and Caroline take in the scene before them before looking to each other, a delighted grin growing on both of their faces. They quickly grab hold of each other's hand and take off straight into the crowd, bouncing along to the Klaxons song currently pounding out of the speakers. The two are swallowed into the mass and soon disappear from sight.

Stefan quickly grabs two beers from a couple walking by, says, "I think you've had enough," and hands one of the drinks to Bonnie. When she raises a questioning eyebrow, he just shrugs as says, "And we clearly haven't."

**xx**

An out of breath and slightly sweaty Elena bounds over to the picnic table where Matt, Bonnie, and Stefan sit.

"Tired already?" Matt asks.

"Just need to refuel," Elena smiles and scoops Stefan's cup out of his hands, downing the rest of it in one long gulp.

"No, please, help yourself," he mutters.

"Where's Caroline?" Bonnie asks.

"Oh, ya know, disappeared with some guy, leaving me all on my lonesome," she pouts exaggeratedly. "If only one of my very oldest and bestest friends would come dance with me, I'd be the happiest girl in the world," she says blinking rapidly and giving Bonnie a very deliberate look.

Bonnie rolls her high and smiles, "Sure, why not?"

"Yay!" Elena claps and grabs Bonnie's hands.

But as their hands make contact, all the people and all the noise seem to disappear from around Bonnie and she is left watching a very different scene unfold before her.

_Caroline stands before the door looking more afraid than anyone has ever seen her, "You have to believe me!"  
"Look, Care, I'm sure it's nothing." Elena says in a soothing voice, walking over to the door. "Just let me see."  
"Elena, no!"  
But Elena disregards Caroline's warning and opens the door. Before Caroline can pull it back shut, a crazed man runs in, baring a metal crowbar, and brings in down on Elena's head with a force that makes audible the sound of Elena's cracking skull. She falls to the floor and Bonnie can see from her unblinking, glazed eyes that her friend is dead._

"Yoo hoo! Earth to Bonnie!"

Suddenly, the frightening scene is gone and Bonnie finds herself surrounded by the party once more.

"You ok, Bon?" Elena asks. "You kinda dozed out on me for a second there."

Bonnie blinks several times, trying to come back to her senses after the unexplainable occurrence. "Wh-what?" She stutters out, finding herself unable to focus on anything other than what is was like to hear her friend's skull crack right before her.

"Seriously, Bonnie, are you alright? You look like you just saw a ghost." Elena chuckles nervously.

_Not exactly, _Bonnie thinks, glancing around the wooded area where the party is being held, trying to get her thoughts in order.

"Bonnie, look at me," Elena says.

Bonnie tries, but finds herself unable to look at her friend when all she can imagine is the way Elena looked lying dead on the floor. "I just- I need get some air," she manages to say, turning and rushing away, not even caring that her excuse to leave made no sense, considering they were already outside in the fresh air.

As Bonnie walks away, she is barely conscious of the people she is rudely pushing aside to get to a more cleared area. Brushing past them, she doesn't even hear the shouts being directed at her until a hand grabs her from behind. Briefly, she's sees in her head a flash of an unfamiliar man with dark raven hair and intense blue eyes, but jerks her hand out of the person's grasp before she can see anything else.

"What?" Bonnie snaps, spinning around to see the who ever it was that grabbed her.

"Whoa, um, ok." A blonde girl stands there, swaying slightly on her feet.

"Oh, shit, sorry Caroline. I didn't mean to snap at you like that, it's just been a weird night." Bonnie scratches her head.

"Uh, sure, yeah. I just wanted to tell you that I won't need a ride home or anything."

"Why not?"

"Well, I met this guy, and..." Caroline trails off with a giddy smile and Bonnie knows exactly where her sentence is going.

"Hm," Bonnie narrows her eyes, "where is this guy?"

"Please tell me you're not about to take up the role of protective mother?" Caroline teases.

"Excuse me, but I just want to make sure that my best friend is in good hands. If this guy is some kind of creep, wouldn't you want to know?"

"How would _you_ even know?"

"Don't you know? I'm psychic." Bonnie jokes.

"Fine," Caroline chuckles. "He's over there," she says as she points across the crowd to a guy standing alone by the tree line. "Isn't he hot?"

The air seems to whoosh out of Bonnie's lungs as she meets the gaze of the man Caroline directed her to and she feels herself backing away.

"Oookay, you obviously don't agree."

"I-I'm sorry Care but, I- uh- I need to get out of here." Bonnie turns and walks away so quickly that she's almost running and she doesn't stop until she's in her car. She sits with her head on the steering wheel as she tries to calm her breathing. When she touched Alaric earlier that day, she felt rage. Maybe that was just in her head though, maybe she was just imagining things. When she touched Elena, she saw her die. Maybe she's just had too much to drink though, maybe the drink had even been spiked with something. But when Caroline touched her, she saw a man. A man with raven hair and blue eyes. The same man Caroline pointed to mere moments later, saying she was going home with him. That one had not been in Bonnie's head. That one had been real. And she didn't even need to ask his name, because she already knew it. _Damon._

* * *

**A/N: ****Feel free to shoot me a line, let me know what you think. find me on tumblr at curtlemons  
**

_Next: _**Chapter Two; When Rome's In Ruins**

_Caroline is running as fast as she can. The burning in her calves is screaming at her to stop and take a break, but the maniac with a crowbar chasing behind her is incentive enough for her to keep going. She finally makes it to the community center and pushes the doors open, falling as she bursts into the building. She scrambles to stand back up and pulls the doors shut behind her, locking them with fumbling, panicked fingers. "He's gonna kill us!"_


	3. I Wanna See Your Animal Side

**A/N: Guess who's baaack. I know it's been a while, but with season 5 finally here I'm feeling inspired. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 2; When Rome's In Ruins**

As Tyler walks down the street towards the community center, he is surrounded by Elena, Stefan, and Bonnie. They all met for breakfast before comminty service, except Caroline, who didn't show. They're talking about college and the future, but because of the headphones he's wearing, Tyler doesn't hear a word of it. All morning he has been staring at his phone, waiting for it to ring- waiting for a call from his mom telling him that he can come home. As he stares at his phone now, the world around seems to disappear. The music playing in his ears fades away and the phone seems to get bigger and bigger with every passing second that it does not ring.

And then-

"_Tyler_!"

- he is snapped back into the world around him. He looks up to see everyone is staring at him, and his music has come back into focus. He looks down at his hand and realizes that he dropped his phone. Stefan picks it up and hands it back to Tyler with a worried expression.

"You ok, man?" Stefan asks.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine." Tyler stuffs the phone into his pocket and takes off his headphones, but everyone is still staring at him.

"I said I'm fine!"

"Yeah," Stefan nods. "Ok. Sure. Anyway, this is what we trying to show you."

Stefan hooks his thumb over his shoulder pointing to the wall of the community center behind him. The wall is plastered with a message, painted in large red letters:

I AM GOING TO KILL YOU

"What the hell," Tyler murmurs as he takes a step closer to the wall.

Just then, Alaric comes out of the building and sees them. "Ah, good. You're all here."

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" Tyler asks, pointing at the wall. "Someone wants to kill us?"

"Awful, isn't it?" Alaric says with obvious disinterest. "Exactly the kind of delinquent behavior that gets-"

Everyone groans, drowning out the rest of his sentence. Stefan mutters, "save it," then hitches his bag higher up on his shoulder and walks past Alaric into the entrance of the building. Everyone else follows, leaving Alaric standing alone with the menacing graffiti.

In the locker room, everyone gets changed into their jumpsuits. As it turns out, the boys locker room is flooded and apparently has been for some time. So the girls' locker room has been converted to unisex until further notice. No one really minds. After all, they've all seen each other in just their underwear plenty of times.

Since Stefan's uncle was out of town so often, the five of them often had wild nights over at the boarding house that usually resulted in them all falling asleep in a tangle of limbs on Stefan's humongous bed. Tyler had even gotten completely naked once, while trying to do a hundred-shot challenge. The morning afterwards, they all woke up inside Stefan's closet- Tyler naked, Stefan wearing make up, Bonnie with the word "gay" written on her forehead, Elena with a red streak in her hair, and Caroline with two Twizzlers hanging out of her nose.

In the locker room, once he's changed into his jumpsuit, Stefan yawns and rubs his neck. After he saw Caroline leave the party with Damon, he wasn't too keen on going back to the boarding house where he knew they would be just a wall away. So Elena offered her place, but because he didn't want to have an awkward run-in with Jenna the next morning, he slept on Elena's bedroom floor.

No, he's definitely regretting it.

He cracks his back with a grunt and Elena turns from the mirror where she's brushing her hair.

"You ok there?" She asks.

Stefan makes a pained expression and stretches his arms. "Think there's any chance Damon would be so kind as to not bring his hook-ups back to the boarding house in the future?"

"Hmph, not likely." Bonnie responds before she can even think to stop herself. "Damon's not exactly the considerate type, is he?" She chuckles.

No one responds, and Bonnie looks up to see Stefan and Elena giving her funny looks.

"How do you know what type Damon is?" Stefan asks.

"Yeah, you've never met him." Elena adds.

"Oh, I- uh, I met him at the party. Caroline introduced us," Bonnie lies. "He just sort of rubbed me the wrong way, ya' know? Figured he's the selfish-type."

Elena and Stefan nod, buying her story, and Bonnie turns back to her locker, mentally slapping herself. She doesn't know how she knows what type Damon is, she just does. And she can't believe she let that comment about him slip accidentally. With all the strange things that have been happening to her since the storm, Bonnie wonders if she may be losing her mind. _Maybe an effect of being struck by lightning_, she thinks.

Elena and Stefan go back to their conversation, and Elena jokes that maybe Stefan should get a room at the motel the next time Damon brings someone home.

Tyler has been blocking out most of the talking around him, his current living predicament still weighing heavily on his mind. But a few snippets of the conversation float over to his ear, and at the world "motel," Tyler is reminded of where he has been forced to sleep. And not only being kicked out onto the street, but the fact that his own mother has so far refused to answer any of his calls- 24 calls, to be exact. And 12 voice mails. Before he was upset and hurt, but now Tyler feels only anger. Anger at his mother, at his father, and at the world in general. He begins to feel this sudden rage grow, and before he knows what's happening, there is a loud bang, and he looks down to see a fist-shaped dent in the metal door of his locker.

**xx**

Outside, Stefan, Elena, Tyler, and Bonnie are scrubbing the graffiti'd wall of the community center in a futile attempt to clean it off.

"This is so pointless," Elena says, dropping her brush into the bucket of soapy water beside her. "It doesn't matter how hard we scrub, this isn't coming off."

Bonnie and Stefan stop scrubbing as well and nod in agreement.

"I mean, this doesn't even make sense," she continues, "someone else graffitis, and we have to clean it up? How does that make any sense?"

"It's called Community Payback," their probation worker says, walking towards them. "I thought you all understood that, so I didn't give the mandatory speech yesterday. But now it looks like I should have."

"Ah, no, that's ok," Stefan says, leaning against the wall. "Between you fumbling for keys like some middle-schooler trying to make curfew, and getting us all struck with lightning, I'm not sure you would've had the time anyway."

Everyone else chuckles, but Alaric is obviously miffed by Stefan's comment. Just then, Bonnie's phone starts to ring, and she pulls it out of her pocket to answer.

"Alright, that's it." Alaric says. "Give me your phones, all of you."

"Are you even allowed to take our phones?" Elena asks, but Alaric just takes Bonnie's out of her hand without answering. He turns to Elena and then Stefan, who each reluctantly give up their phones. He turns to Tyler last.

"Sorry, but I'm expecting a call from my-"

Alaric grabs the phone from Tyler's hand before he can finish his sentence.

"Now get back to work," Alaric says, turning away. "I want this finished by the time you guys leave today."

A few mutters of "dick" come from the group as Alaric walks away, and he feels his shoulder twitch.

**xx**

Caroline eases into consciousness and finds herself in an impossibly comfy bed. For a moment, she doesn't know where she is. Then she remembers the party, and a certain blue-eyed stud. _Who knew Stefan's brother was such a hottie?_ She thinks. Then again, she should have assumed as much. Stefan's not so bad looking himself. She rolls over in the plushy bedding and breathes in the fresh linen scent of the pillows. She could stay here all day. But the sound of running water brings her out of her comfy daydream, and she remembers that she has community service. The clock on the bedside is telling her she's already late, so she reluctantly forces herself to sit up. From her place on the bed, she can see Damon in the shower, bubbles and water running down his impossibly irresistible back. For a moment, she considers skipping community service and just going back home where she can get some proper sleep. But Caroline knows she'd never hear the end of it from her law-abiding and enforcing mother. With a discontented sigh, she gets out of the heavenly bed and begins to gather her clothes and put them on.

She takes one last satisfied look at Damon's back before grabbing her purse and leaving. She doesn't bother saying goodbye, because Caroline is sure she'll be seeing him again.

As she walks to the community center in the same clothes she wore to the party, she can't help the smile on her face and the extra pep in her step. It was a good night, indeed. She suddenly remembers that the rest of the group had plans to meet for breakfast, as they usually do the morning after a party, and decides to check her phone because she's probably gotten texts from Elena and Bonnie asking her why she missed. As she searches through her purse for her phone, she picks up her pace, not wanting to show up _too_ late. She's practically running now as she rounds the corner of the building towards the entrance, but she's not looking where she's going and her head runs straight into Alaric's nose with a resounding _crack_.

"Ah! Mother_fucker_!" He shouts.

The impact sends Caroline tumbling to the ground, and the contents of her purse spill out.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I was just looking for my phone and wasn't watching."

"Yeah, of course. Just great," Alaric mutters, still clutching his throbbing nose. "Just what I needed, some mindless delinquent breaking my nose so she could update her twitter. Well guess what?" He practically shouts, looking straight at Caroline, "Nobody fucking cares about whatever display of stupidity you were about to make in less than 240 characters."

"Hey," Caroline retorts, still on the ground, "You don't have to be such a dick about it."

"Oh, right." Alaric says calmly. "I'm the dick, hm? You run into me, break my nose, and I'm the dick?"

He chuckles, but the laughter is completely devoid of humor. Caroline finds it unsettling, and begins to wonder if Alaric might have anger-management issues, and how bad they might be. But then Alaric nods and suddenly brings his foot down on her phone which is lying on the ground. He repeatedly stomps on the phone until it's cracked into tiny bits of piece, shouting as he does so, "Nobody! Cares! About! Your! Stupid! Fucking! Twitter!" When he finishes, and the phone has been reduced to crushed bit and pieces, he scrapes the hair back out of his face and says again, "Got that? Nobody cares about you, you're just some disposable mindless bitch."

Caroline, furious, jumps up from the ground and without thinking, kicks him as hard as she can in the groin.

Alaric falls to his knees with a pained groan, and before he can speak or retaliate, Caroline quickly turns and runs away.

**xx**

Back inside the community center, Bonnie lounges on a ratty couch while Tyler rolls back and forth in a spare wheelchair he found sitting around. Stefan scans the vending machine for something worth eating, and Elena practices her handstands and splits.

"Why are you doing that?" Bonnie asks. "Cheerleading is over now."

Elena comes down from her handstand and lands into a split. She shrugs and wipes the dirt from her hands, "Yeah, but that was high school cheerleading. Don't you think it'd be pretty fun to do college cheerleading?"

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes!" Elena exclaims. "Come on, Bonnie, it'd be so much fun! You, me, and Caroline all cheering together. And Tyler will be on the football team. It'll be just like high school!"

"What about you Salvatore?" Tyler asks. "You plan on trying out for the team?"

"Well," Stefan sighs, "since I won't be doing any hardcore studying for Ivy League level classes like I originally planned, I guess I'll have some extra time on my hands." He smiles sarcastically, "So, sure, why not?"

Stefan's response is met with silence and Tyler, Bonnie, and Elena all trade glances. Out of everyone in the group, Stefan was the most bitter about the arrest and resulting community service. While everyone had faced consequences, Stefan's were the most severe. For the longest time, it had been Stefan's dream to go to his father's Alma mater, Columbia University. The day he was accepted was one of the best, but once they were made aware of his new criminal record, his acceptance was revoked. Everyone felt bad for Stefan, but he seemed unable to go a day without wallowing in regret, and it was wearing down on everyone else. Stefan's new plan was to go to Whitmore with everyone else, and everyone else was beginning to feel insulted by his constant complaining.

"You know, Stefan-" Elena started, but he cut her off.

"I'm just gonna... go to the bathroom," he said, then pushed off the vending machine and walked away quickly.

The group was silent for a moment, until they heard the bathroom door shut.

Tyler shook his head and let out a loud breath. "That guy seriously needs to get laid."

The three of them continue to chatter about nothing in particular, until they here a voice call out behind them.

"Excuse me."

Bonnie recognizes the voice immediately, and turns around to see who Damon walking up to them. Tyler leans his heasd back to see who it is, but ends up leaning back to far, and tips himself and the wheel chair over backwards. He falls to the floor with a murmur of, "Oh, shit," and quickly gets back up again and resituates himself into the wheelchair. Elena comes down out of her scorpion pose, and looks and Damon with a questioning expression.

"Oh, hi. You're Stefan's brother, right?" She asks.

"The one and only," he responds.

"Well, if you're here to pick up Stefan, our community service isn't over for about another three hours," she explains.

"Oh... right."

Just then, Stefan comes back into the entry way of the community center where they're all sitting.

"Damon?" He asks, confused as to why his brother is there. "What are you doing here?"

"Little brother," Damon greets him. "I'm here to pick you up."

For a moment, Stefan assumes Damon is joking and waits for the punchline. But when Damon doesn't say anything else, Stefan only becomes more confused. "Community service isn't over for another three hours," he explains.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know that."

"I told you yesterday," Stefan says. "Were you even listening when I was talking to you?"

"I heard the important parts. Community service, pick me up, party at the falls." Damon shrugs and Stefan pinches the bridge of his nose.

"You see, this is your problem, Damon. You never listen-"

"Oh, come on! It was a tiny mistake. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is you do this all the time. You only ever hear what you want to hear-"

"Don't you think this might be a conversation better suited for a private setting?" Tyler butts in. "I'm not really interesting in hearing you two hash it out over some petty argument."

"Not to mention," Bonnie adds, "this could be time better spent trying to figure out where Caroline is. She's been missing and I assumed she was still with you," Bonnie says, gesturing towards Damon, "but obviously not."

"Plus, she also hasn't responded to any of my text messages either."

"Ah," Damon says, "so you must be Elena."

"'Scuse me?" Elena asks.

"Let me see if I can recall correctly," Damon clears his throat. "Morning, Care Bear. Don't forget we're all meeting for breakfast, see you soon... Rise and shine sleepyhead. You missed breakfast so I assume your still in bed. Just try not to be late to community service... Cutting it pretty close, Care. Hurry up and get here!... Caroline, if you miss community service your mom will freak... You ok Care? Text me back when you get the chance..."

"You read my messages to Caroline?!" Elena asks incredulously.

"Her damn phone wouldn't stop buzzing," Damon shrugs. "It was just asking to be picked up."

"Wow, Elena," Tyler snickers. "You're like a clingy girlfriend. Only worse."

"Um, despite that that is a complete invasion of privacy, can we please get back to the topic at hand?" Bonnie asks. "As in, where Caroline could be."

"You know how Caroline gets when she's hung over," Stefan says, sitting down on the old couch next to Bonnie. "She probably went straight home and fell back asleep without even thinking to look at her phone. I wouldn't worry too much."

"Yeah, she probably didn't get much sleep last night." Damon says.

His comment is met with disgusted groans. "You're repulsive," Bonnie says.

But it's obvious that Elena is still thinking about Caroline.

Stefan reassures her, "Look, Elena, I'm sure she's fine. We can all go over to her house to check on her once community service is over."

"Yeah," Tyler says. "Not stop worrying and come get in this other wheelchair so I can race you down the hallway."

He rolls the other wheelchair to her, and Elena contemplates for a moment, before nodded. "Ok, as soon as community service is over." Then she gets into the wheelchair and Tyler begins explaining the rules of the race.

Damon leans over to Stefan and whispers, "If you think I am driving all you over to Blondie's house like some kind of taxi service-"

"Shut up, Damon" Stefan says and then turns to Bonnie. "Wanna' play Go Fish?"

**xx**

Caroline is sitting on a park bench, fuming about her predicament. As she thinks, her leg bounces up and down furiously. She can't go to the community center, or she'd have to face her probation worker after shoving him the way she did. Not to mention, she still freaked out about what she saw his eyes, do, and is in no hurry to see him again. She can't go home, or she'd have to face her mother and explain why she's not an community service. As usual, her mother would just look at her daughter with that expression of disappointment that always makes Caroline feel like a complete failure. And now that her phone is destroyed, she can't even call some one to come and get her. Though she doesn't know who she would call. Most of her friends are at community service, except for Matt. But after her encounter with him at the grille the day before, she's not to anxious to speak to him. Caroline is pulled out of her miserable thoughts by the sound of something scraping against concrete. She wipes away the teas blurring her vision and looks up. What she sees makes her blood run cold.

There, a few meters away, stands her probation workers. He has blood running down his face from when Caroline accidentally ran into him. But that's not the strangest thing. Neither is the fact that he is dragging a crowbar behind him. No, the most frightening thing about his appearance is his eyes. His eyes, which appear to be glazed over white. They glare at Caroline with immeasurable hostility. The entire image- Alaric's bloody face, the glazed over eyes, the crowbar, the guttural noises coming from his throat, and the way his shoulder keeps twitching- causes Caroline to slowly stand and take a step back. Then, when Alaric raises the crowbar and starts to charge towards Caroline, she has only one thought- _run_.

**xx**

Caroline is running as fast as she can. The burning in her calves is screaming at her to stop and take a break, but the maniac with a crowbar chasing behind her is incentive enough for her to keep going. She finally makes it to the community center and pushes the doors open, falling as she bursts into the building. She scrambles to stand back up and pulls the doors shut behind her, locking them with fumbling, panicked fingers.

"He's gonna kill us!" She shouts.

Everyone is taken off a bit by her sudden dramatic entrance. Not to mention her crazed expression, and the make-up that is running down her face from where she was crying before.

"Whoa," Tyler says, taking in her disheveled appearance with wide eyes.

"Caroline?" Elena asks, looking at her friend with a confusion and worry.

Caroline looks out the small windows frantically, then turns back to her friends. "The probation worker, it's like he's lost his mine! He just tried to attack"

"Uh, easy there, Blondie." Damon's voice is soothing, but he's looking at Caroline as though she's a rabid animal. "What do you mean he attacked you?"

"He's out there and he was chasing me with a crowbar! The storm, the lightning, it's done something weird to us!"

"Ok, you know what, I know what's happening here." Damon says with confidence.

"You do?" Elena asks skeptically.

"Oh, yeah. I had a bowl of mushrooms sitting in my room, and Blondie her obviously must have grabbed some on her way out this morning. Ate a few too many, and not the trip's gone bad. Give it a few hours, it'll wear off." He shrugs with nonchalance.

"I'm not high!" Caroline yells. "This is real!"

"Look," Damon says, approaching Caroline, "I know what you're going through. There's not reason to be embarrassed. Everyone has a bad trip at least once."

"Ugh!" Caroline, "I'm serious!"

Damon puts his hands on Caroline shoulders, "Listen, Blondie-"

"You have to believe me!" She shouts, then lowers her voice. "He attacked me. You have to believe me."

Damon's expression seems to go vacant, and in a flat voice he responds, "Ok, I believe you."

Caroline is taking back, along with everyone else.

"Wait... what?" They all say in unison.

"I believe you," he says again. "The probation worker attacked. He tried to kill you."

Caroline looks at him incredulously, "Is this supposed to be a joke? Because it's not funny," she shoves Damon off of her. "This is serious! You all don't understand what he looked like. His eyes, they were distant, and vicious. When I ran into him, he was so angry. He was-"

Then Caroline remembers something. She remembers what Bonnie said at the Grille the day before.

_ "When he touched me... I felt rage. Like, murderous rage._"

"Oh my god." Caroline says quietly, then looks at Bonnie, who has remained silend throughout the whole event, standing off to the side. "Bonnie! Oh, my god! Yesterday, remember? You felt it."

"Bonnie, what's she talking about?" Elena asks.

Bonnie looks around at everyone, debating on what to say. She is inclined to dismiss Caroline's claims, laugh it off, say she doesn't know what Caroline is talking about. But when she looks up at Caroline, and sees the desperate frightened look in her friend's eyes, she knows she has to say something.

"I, um..." Her eyes dart around. How do you tell your friends you might be psychic? She clears her throat and jumps right in. "I think I'm psychic."

She is met with wide eyes.

Stefan speaks first, "You're... psychic?"

Bonnie wrings her hands together and nods. "When I saw our probation worker yesterday, I touched his hand, and... felt something. Like rage. Burning rage."

Damon chuckles and sits down on the couch, "Well, this just gets better and better."

"Look," Bonnie says more firmly, moving over to stand beside Caroline, "I don't know how it happened, but first it happened with Alaric, and then later with Damon at the party."

"Me?" Damon says, with a disbelieving tone. "You had a vision of me?"

"Well, it wasn't a vision. Just a feeling, sort of. I saw you in my head, and I knew your name and your personality, without anyone telling me."

"Ok, that's ridiculous. You knew my name because Stefan said it before and you didn't remember it until you saw me. As for my personality type, it's not that hard to tell what kind of guy I am just by looking at me. Someone slipped something in your drink and you mistook a perfectly innocent encounter for some sort of psychic vision."

"Are your drugs your answer for everything?" Elena asks with a judgmental tone.

"What do you think it is then? You think these two idiots are telling the truth?"

Elena doesn't respond for a moment, just looks at her friends with doubt. "They're not idiots," she finally says. "And I don't know what to believe."

"Hey, I have a simple solution." Tyler says. "If you're psychic, Bonnie, then why don't you just predict something?"

"It's not like that," she says.

Damon rolls his eyes. "Of course it's not like that, because it _doesn't exist_. Jesus, there's no such things as psychics. Or psychotic killer probation workers for that matter."

"I'm telling the truth!" Bonnie says, "And I believe Caroline is too. The storm did something to us."

"The only thing it did was fry your brain cells," Tyler mutters. Elena nudges him in the leg and gives him a look that says, _shut it_.

"Hold on," Caroline says looking at Tyler and Elena, "why are you two I wheelchairs?"

"Oh, it was the storm," Tyler says. "It made Elena go mad with hornyness! She attacked me and we did it _so_ hard, we can't even walk anymore!"

"Tyler!" Elena shouts, and kicks him in the leg. She's trying to scold him, but the giggles she's holding back eventually come out.

"Ok," Damon says with finality and stands up. "This is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. I'm out of here."

Before he can get to the doors, Caroline grabs his arms. "No! You can't go out there! He'll kill you!"

Damon glares at her, "If you don't let me go I will drag you out there with me."

When Caroline doesn't let go, he pushes her off of him and continues towards the door. Seeing how afraid Caroline is, Elena decides to say something.

She gets up and steps between Damon and the door. "Hey, maybe we should just... I don't know, listen to Caroline for a second."

"I think I've heard enough," Damon says.

"Look," Elena lowers her voice, "she looks really freaked out ok. Can you just-"

"She's having a bad trip, not my problem. Now move."

Elena doesn't move though, "Just hold on-"

Damon rolls his eyes and reaches past her to open the door.

But it's a mistake.

As soon as the door is opened, a crowbar comes swinging in, landing on Elena's head and knocking her dead.

**xx**

For Stefan, the world around him seems to stop. Time slows down to an agonizingly slow pace, and all sound disappears. The only thing he can hear now is own heavy breathing. He looks to the floor and sees Elena on the ground, the pool of blood around her head growing. He looks back and sees the other with panicked and shocked faces, frozen in place. He looks back at Elena, then at the door when the probation worker is, stuck like a sculpture. He's holding the crowbar that killed Elena, and his eyes are glazed white. Stefan can't believe what's happening. His breath gets quicker, he feels his heart pounding so hard he fears it may break through his chest at any moment.

Then, slowly, things start to move again. They start to move backwards. The pool of blood around Elena's head begins to shrink, and she begins to rise from the ground, the probation worker begins to back out of the door way. And as the scene rewinds, it begins to go faster and faster, until it's a flash of undecipherable events before him.

Suddenly, Stefan feels the world around him return. The only sound is not longer his heavy breathing. Tyler and Elena are still in wheelchairs, and Bonnie is still standing next to Caroline. And Damon is still sitting next to him on the couch, looking like he just walked into the world's biggest and most boring freak-show.

"Oh, it was the storm," Tyler says. "It made Elena go mad with hornyness! She attacked me and we did it _so_ hard, that we can't even walk anymore!"

Stefan can't believe what he's seeing. The entire scene continues just as it did before, only this time, as Stefan watches it, he already knows how it ends.

"Ok," Stefan hears Damon say, then the older brother gets up off the couch, "this is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. I'm out of here."

"No! You can't go out there! He will kill you!"

For Stefan, everything happens just as before. But this time's different, because now he can do something. Now he can change it.

"Wait," he says. Everyone turns their eyes to him and he takes a nervous gulp. "She's telling the truth."

* * *

**A/N: And thus, things start to get crazy. If you're confused, I promise, all will be explained in time. If you're not confused, kudos for keeping up with my insane writing. find me on tumblr at curtlemons**

_Next:_ **Chapter Three; I Wanna See Your Animal Side**

_They all stand around the locker that is dripping with blood from the inside. Stefan is the first to step forward. With trembling fingers, he pries the wet and sticky door open. What's inside stops all their hearts. "Oh my god," Bonnie gasps. Caroline latches onto Elena's arm, and Elena chokes back tears. "He's gonna' kill us," Stefan whispers. The fact of the matter truly sinking in for the first time. Tyler finds the sight so disturbing, that he pukes on the floor. They all huddle closer together, their fate sinking in. Helpless and trapped, they have no way out._


End file.
